Fixations on the Field

Abstract

This thesis explores the design of a Student Commons at Auckland University’s city campus, through the lens of the field conditions theory by Stan Allen. The thesis first establishes the contextual field of the site through research into site history, outlining the field knowledge of university campuses. This is furthered by a theoretical analysis of the field through an investigation of the ‘grid’ as an architectural device. Through the critique of precedents and iterative mapping as creative practices, the key themes of growth, movement and multiplicities are extracted as conditions of interest within the field. A further investigation into the ‘condition’ of the field reveals a renewed ‘morphological’ understanding of spaces beyond materiality. Supported by a further critique of Junya Ishigami, SANAA and Bernard Tschumi’s works, iterative making spurs from the initial mappings to take upon spatial qualities as extracted from the site context. The concept of subjective perceptions of space within field conditions further supports this thread, which designs for a field of undulating qualities rather than a single fixed condition of space. To locally inhabit the field conditions, the thesis further investigates Ishigami’s and SANAA’s interest in multiplicities. Taking precedent from the practice of cataloguing, the design uses coded maps as vehicles to drive proliferation and variation of local diversity within the field. Both the method of inhabitation and the injection of personal scale into the field are therefore key to the activation of this design. Finally, this thesis critiques and testifies to an architecture beyond predetermination, as arisen out of a renewed understanding of space. The design shows the opportunities afforded by removing functionality as an end-goal of design, allowing more opportunistic readings of inhabitation, experience and contextual response to surface.